*Ph.D. students (in alphabetic order):

• Na Ma (end of Fall 2022 quarter-present)
• Bhagyashree “Shree” Nagarkar (Winter 2022-present)

Recent research engineers/scientists

• Vanessa Salandez in Juarez (May 2021-Fall 2022),  volunteer research scientist; B.Sc. in biological sciences, an alumna of NASA L’Space Academy, and with research experience in the medical field; from Fall 2022, graduate in Food Science and Technology under Dr. Ameer Taha’s supervision.
• Shuhao Wan (Winter 2022-Summer 2023), undergraduate student researcher first, then research engineer upon graduating in Spring 2022 with a B.Sc. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; started his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan in Fall 2023
• Alejandra Ruiz (Fall 2022-current), Master of Fine Arts graduate (Department of Design), and then research scientist (Summer 2023-current)

Past research engineers/scientists: Serena Ferraro, Luciana Arronche, Charles Winkelmann 

Visiting students

In Summer 2023, we hosted two High School students from the greater Sacramento area: Bhavya Mamnani (Mira Loma High School) and Lyka Raymundo (Laguna Creek High School). Both students are continuing their research projects in Fall. I also mentored for another scientific project High School student Vedanth Krishna (North Penn High School), remotely (he is in Pennsylvania).

In Summer 2022, we hosted undergraduate student Aidelen Montoya (CSU San Marcos), funded by UC Davis Graduate Studies Summer Research Program. We also worked with UC Davis Summer intern Eva Zhou.

In Summer 2021, we hosted Lincoln High School student Alyssa Rizzardo, and Davis Senior High School student Nathan Fanous. Nathan continued contributing to the project as he could during the academic year, and is starting his Mechanical Engineering B.Sc. degree at Notre Dame University in Fall 2022. 

In Summer 2018, we hosted a Mechanical Engineering undergraduate student from Stanford University, Ghufran Alkhamis.

In February-July 2017, we hosted a Ph.D. student from Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), Marialaura Clausi, advised by Dr. Susanna Laurenzi and Dr. Mariagabriella Santonicola, on a collaborative project on UV sensors for composite materials.

In Summer 2016, we have hosted a high-school intern, Frances Marie Quynn (from Davis Senior High School).

Over the years, we have hosted graduate students from other countries. In Summer 2009, we hosted Anais Farrugia, M.S. student from the French institution ENSMA, who then pursued a Ph.D. at the Ecole des Mines d’Albi (I was invited to serve on her Ph.D. thesis committee). Dr. Farrugia is now R&D engineer in a company manufacturing electromagnetic brakes in France.

In 2014, we hosted for 6 months Ph.D. student Jesus Ku-Herrera in the area of Materials Science of Engineering, from the Centro de Investigación Científica de Yucatán, Mexico (advised by Dr. Francis Avilés). Dr. Ku-Herrera is now a researcher of CONACYT-Centro de Investigación en Química Aplicada, Departamento de Síntesis de Polímeros.

In  2014, we hosted Marie Vidovic, an M.S. student in the area of polymers and composites from the Ecole des Mines de Douai (France), now an engineer at Air Liquide, and we hosted Szymon Furtak, a Ph.D. student in industrial engineering from Copenaghen Business School (Denmark). In Spring 2015, we hosted Yao “Sunny” Chen, an aerospace engineer who worked at Airbus and was trained in China and France.

ACRES alums

(Trivia: our alums include 5 Eagle Scouts, 1 paramedic who worked with a Fire Department before her second-career college degree at UC Davis, 1 UC Davis firefighter and paramedic who chose this as his post UC Davis career, and more left-handed people than the typical average)

Alums include Samira Iqbal (M.S., 2023), Dominic Soufl, Connor Prescott, Fernando Hernandez Sanchez, structural engineer (Viasat), Lt. Col. Daniel Nelson, Ph.D. (US Air Force), Early Cobb, M.S., David Guinn, M.S. (Siemens), Faress Zwain (starting his M.S. at Stanford), Alex Weinstein (E-Space, Silicon Valley), Santiago Mejia (Toray Advanced Composites, Fairfield, CA), Kyle Jung (Ph.D. student at Purdue University), Nick Loftus, Shreya Rastogi (B.S. in MAE from our Department, a licensed pilot, and a member of our group for 5 years; she is the CEO of S R  Aerospace Solutions, India), Yash Taneja (M.S. student at Stanford University), Heather Lynch, David Bartolo, Max Fors (Lighter than Air Research), Linda Wu (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Austin Pastrnak, M.S. (Schafer Corporation/Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory), Adriana Henriquez (Waymo), Jon Thomas (National Technical Systems), Sean Comick (completed an internship at NASA Johnson, now he is pursuing his M.S. degree at UC Davis), Thomas Peev, M.S. (Momentus, then Benchmark Space Systems), Stephen Foster, Dara Sobati (Keysight Technologies), Taner Dubie, Richard Bramble (who graduated from Navy Officer Candidate School, and is currently a student naval aviator), Brett Hecker, Bruno Matsui (SpinLaunch), Aaron Guízar, Trent Storm, Sicheng Kevin Li (Ph.D. at UC Davis with Dr. Lee), Ari Wargon (Contra Costa County Fire Protection), Travis Gildner, M.S. (Virgin Orbital, and winner of a prestigious NSF Graduate Fellowship in 2017, which he declined to work in the space industry), Oliver Torrealba Aguilar (Fresenius Medical, Bay Area), Manuel Cordova, Gregory Shelton (Lockheed Martin), Andrew Westle (Battery Operations Engineer at Sila Nanotechnologies Inc.), Cari Pouchnik (Engineering instructor at Buckingham Charter Magnet High School in Vacaville, CA), Sanaulla Mohammed (Lucid Motors), Victor Quintero (Boeing), Kieran Wolk (Ph.D. student at UCLA), Brett Bacharach (San Diego Composites first, then Virgin Orbital), Milani Lyman (Varian), Brian Pinto, M.S.  (US Air Force), Angelo Magliola (DT Engineering, Roseville, CA), Nicolas Marinkovich (Swinerton Builders, San Diego, CA), Christopher O’ Keefe (Kite Pharma, The Netherlands), Daniel Reid (Genentech first, now project engineer at XL Constructions), Siavash Peiday Saheli (KLA-Tencor, Bay Area), Dr. Serena Ferraro (research engineer who went on to Caltech for her Ph.D., now at JPL),  Steven Kern, M.S. (Carbon 3D), Dominique True (Teledyne Reynolds, CA), Antonio Gomez, M.S. (Hyundai America, Los Angeles area), Alyssa “Nikki” Yambao (RGA Design, Bay Area), Erik Quiroz (Fresenius Medical, Bay Area), Robert Pires (Hill Engineering, LLC, Sacramento, CA), Destiny Garcia (who completed her Ph.D. in the area of manufacturing at UC Davis), Stephanie Zhu (Ph.D. student at Georgia Tech), Miguel Duran, Dayane Marques Oliveira (exchange student from Brazil, who graduated with a certificate of best undergraduate student of her Materials Science and Engineering program, now a Ph.D. student at UC Davis), Luciana Arronche, M.S. (also research engineer), Dr. Bryan Loyola (co-advised with Prof. K. Loh, formerly at Sandia Livermore, currently at Microsoft), Cory Brandli (Kratos Aerospace, CA), Yong Yin Chuah (founder of a start-up in the healthy foods industry in Malaysia, after working as engineering manager in American and Chinese corporations), Charles Winkelmann (research engineer, the ideator of the ACRES acronym, working at Kinkisharyo, CA), Dr. Robert Ireland (former undergraduate researcher who went on to pursue a Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University and is currently at Wagner Dimas, CA), Dr. Ray Tang (co-advised with Prof. P. Erickson, currently at Sacramento State University), Christie English, Samuel Kim, M.S., Josiah Garcia, Michael Kopriva (who went on to earn an M.S., and is currently Instructor at the USAF Test Pilot School), E. Alex Russell, M.Eng. (Kratos Aerospace, CA), Mike Worley (currently at Southwest Research Institute, UT), Peter Le (Mizuho osi, CA), Katherine Lo.

Undergraduate student Benjamin Chia and research engineer David Moyers, M.S., did a lab rotation in 2019.

Research collaborations

Below is the list of our collaborators/proposals co-authors for the past 5 years:

UC Davis

Barbato, Michele, Young, Thomas, Peña, Jasquelin, Civil and Environmental Engineering; Davis, Cristina, Badrya, Camli, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering; Creinin, Mitchell, School of Medicine; Taha, Ameer, Food Science and Technology; Mazza Rodrigues, Jorge, Parikh, Sanjai, Harter, Thomas, Scow, Kate, , Land, Air and Water Resources; Cogdell, Christina, Vega, Katia, Design; Middleton, Beth Rose, Fontana, Nina, Native American Studies, Ecology; Connon, Richard, Segarra, Amélie, Veterinary Medicine; Bogar, Laura, Rizzo, David, Del Castillo, Johanna, Plant Biology; Nitin, Nitin, BioAgricultural Engineering/Food Science and Technology; Kronawitter, Coleman, Chemical Engineering;  Robinson, Stephen, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

In USA and outside UC Davis

G’Acha, Anira, EPA Specialist, Cahto Tribe of Laytonville Rancheria; Dawson, Cyndi, Castalia Environmental; Garbelotto, Matteo, U.C. System-wide Extension Specialist, Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley;  Stevenson, Atta, Yonemura, Randy, California Indian Water Commission; Quiroz Arita, Carlos, Sandia National Laboratories, Livermore; Steenberg, Summer, Cultural Anthropology, Duke University; Muliana, Anastasia, Mechanical Engineering Texas A&M University; Goldman, Nir, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (also adjunct faculty at UCD Chemical Engineering); Orlando, Thomas; Jones, Brant; Reynolds, John, Georgia Institute of Technology; Beltran, Esther, Florida Space Institute; LaVerne, Jay, Physics, Notre Dame University; Lestari, Wahyu, Aerospace Engineering, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; Cavallaro, Paul, Naval Undersea Warfare Center.

Outside USA

Silva, Nataly, Vidal Lynch, Ricardo, Department of Design, Universidad del Desarrollo (Santiago, Chile); Comino, Elena, Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering, Politecnico di Torino (Italy); Teran, Tosca, Nanotopia (Canada); Laurenzi, Susanna, Astronautics/Electrical and Energy Engineering, and Santonicola, M. Gabriella, Chemical Engineering, Materials and Environment, both from Sapienza University of Roma, Italy; Avilés, Francis, Unidad de Materiales/Centro de Investigación Cientifica de Yucatán, Mexico; Herrera, José de Jesús, (former) Ph.D. student of the Unidad de Materiales/Centro de Investigación Cientifica de Yucatán, Mexico, and now researcher of the Centro de Investigación en Química Aplicada, Coahuila, Mexico; Ledesma, Elias, Ramirez Elias, Victor, Rojas Mancera, Erick, Mechanical Engineering, University of Guanajuato, Mexico.

PHOTOS OF THE GROUP MEMBERS

The photos below show most of our group members/alums over the years.cent